FIREWIRE 1394a VS 1394b?

[Kevin]

Hi, I just bought a PCI firewire card from Radio Shack and I've installed it
to do video editing. On the box for the card it says 'transfers data upto
400 mbs' Does that mean its a firewire 1394a card? How can I tell what type
of 1394 card it is?Can XP support 1394b cards? Is 1394b twice as fast? Will
a 1394b card make a big difference to my video editing compared to the 1394a
card I have in there now?

Thanks for any help..

[Willy]

Yes, IEEE 1394a is 400Mbps, IEEE 1394b is 800Mbps. Do you have USB 2.0
as it is faster than IEEE 1394a at 480Mbps. Yes, XP supports it.

Post by Kevin
Hi, I just bought a PCI firewire card from Radio Shack and I've installed it
to do video editing. On the box for the card it says 'transfers data upto
400 mbs' Does that mean its a firewire 1394a card? How can I tell what type
of 1394 card it is?Can XP support 1394b cards? Is 1394b twice as fast? Will
a 1394b card make a big difference to my video editing compared to the 1394a
card I have in there now?
Thanks for any help..

[Pat Janes]

Post by Kevin
Hi, I just bought a PCI firewire card from Radio Shack and I've
installed it to do video editing. On the box for the card it says
'transfers data upto 400 mbs' Does that mean its a firewire 1394a
card?

Yes.

Post by Kevin
How can I tell what type of 1394 card it is?

1394a (FireWire 400) devices will have a 4- or 6-pin connector. 1394b
(FireWire 800) devices use a 9-pin connector. It's pretty easy to tell
the difference after you've seen the different connectors.

Here's a link to a 6- to 9-pin cable, which lets you use FireWire 400
devices with a FireWire 800 bus.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_I
d=21&pcount=&Product_Id=164598

Post by Kevin
Can XP support 1394b cards? Is 1394b twice as fast?

Yes and yes.

Post by Kevin
Will a 1394b card make a big difference to my video editing compared
to the 1394a card I have in there now?

Not unless your DV camera has a FireWire 800 port, in which case you'll
probably be able to get raw video into your computer more quickly.